Page 38 of Used By the Unicorn

Sapphy groans. “Distract me.”

Fuck. I’m not sure I’m ready for this. I didn’t want to be left behind. I certainly didn’t want to go home after the messages I got from the debt collection company threatening to turn up at my apartment.

None of this is helpful to Sapphy.

I clear my throat. “Have you thought about baby names?” It’s something that occurred to me yesterday. I’m going to have to name my baby. Only how are you supposed to know until you meet them?

Sapphy smiles. “I like Bliss, but Knight really wants Aphrial. That was his mother’s name.”

Sapphy squeezes my arm. When I look, her belly tightens and the outline of a little body stands out against the rounded bulge.

Oh fuck.

There’s a real baby in there. A baby that’s coming out whether we like it or not.

“I didn’t think it would hurt this much yet.” Sapphy confesses. “There’s still so far to go.”

“You’re doing so well.” I have no idea. She doesn’t need to hear that, though.

She gives me a brave smile and we keep walking, circling around the trunk of a large tree before turning back toward the others. We pause when another contraction makes her cry out. Sapphy clutches me and I hold her up until we’re both shaking. We’re both breathing hard when it’s over. “Oh my fucking God,” I whisper.

I didn’t mean her to, but Sapphy hears me. “Don’t worry. It’s going to be OK.”

I laugh. “I think I’m supposed to be the one reassuring you, right?”

She gives me another squeeze. “You are.”

I shake my head. “I don’t know how. I don’t know what I’m doing.” I laugh. “I couldn’t even make you come today.”

Sapphy smiles. “That’s why we’re a herd, Jade.”

I don’t know what to say to that. I’m grateful when Knight hurries to take over from me. Sapphy stops walking so she can lean against his broad side.

The nurse returns, carrying a drink for Sapphy. She hands it to Stirling who pulls out a zippered plastic bag. I’m about to tell him off for slipping who knows what into Sapphy’s drink at a time like this when I realize. It must be the alicorn. I watch in fascination as he adds a little powder and swirls the cup to mix itin. The liquid glows for a moment. Perhaps that’s my overactive imagination. When the next contraction ends, he lifts the cup to Sapphy’s lips. She sighs as she takes a swallow.

“Try to finish it,” he encourages her.

We fall into a rhythm after that. I hold a cold cloth to Sapphy’s face and wipe the back of her neck and her chest. Stirling fetches her water or refreshes the cloth, talking her through the contractions. Boaz rubs her back and Knight is there through it all, keeping her on her feet.

I don’t notice things speed up until the contractions are almost back to back and the nurse comes back. “Time to push.”

“Do you want the pool, Sapphy?” Stirling asks her.

She shakes her head. “No. I want to stay here.”

My heart is racing. My palms are sweaty. I wipe the cold cloth across my own face, trying to cool myself down. I can’t.

Sapphy grips Knight’s horn and he lowers his head. She bends her knees. The nurse positions underneath her, hands out, and I realize what the fuck is going on.

She said push!

She said push and Sapphy is squatting ready to push out a motherfucking baby.

Stirling turns me and pulls me into his chest, stroking my hair. “Breathe, Jade.”

I struggle. “I can’t breathe if you smother me.”

He keeps going. “Breathe.”

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